ISU researchers have developed a microfluidic platform capable of selective single-cell capture, isolation, and rapid electrical lysis for analysis.
Iowa State University researchers have developed a microfluidic device for selective single-cell capture at an array of wireless bipolar electrodes. Thus, selective cell isolation, retention, reagent exchange, fluidic isolation, and rapid electrical lysis can be accomplished for high-throughput analysis. This technology is tunable and can be broadly applicable to many cell types (and mixtures) and can be adapted to a wide variety of assays (e.g., for nucleic acids, enzymes). The capabilities of this technology are particularly well suited for the study and early detection of circulating tumor cells (CTCs). CTCs are cells that have detached from the primary tumor and migrated into blood vessels. A fraction of these CTCs seed metastases for subsequent growth of tumors. Understanding and detecting these CTCs is therefore critical because metastasis leads to more than 90% of epithelial cancer-related deaths.
This integration of dielectrophoretic selection of cells with the other steps required for analysis in one platform is an important breakthrough in CTC detection because other methods, such as immunoaffinity-based detection, which targets cell surface antigens (e.g., EpCAM) may be overly selective. Based on the degree of selectivity and volumetric throughput attained, this platform would synergize well with an inline pre-sort for nucleated cells with or without white blood cell depletion. Finally, the platform is amenable to integration with electrochemical methods, thereby providing access to a wide array of sensing schemes to assess biomolecules and metabolites. The features of this technology give it potential to be transformative in our detection and understanding of certain cancer types.
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